Bonjour!
WINTERSTEIGER moves to the "Grande Nation"
Sales and service subsidiary in Sainte-Hélène-du-Lac
In 1986, WINTERSTEIGER established a subsidiary in France. The company found itself in Sallanches in the Haute-Savoie region in the Mont Blanc area. The first years were extremely difficult, and the subsidiary did not earn much money. It was thanks to Michael Neuwirth from Austria that the subsidiary found its feet, before he returned to Ried as CEO.
Product range at the start of the 1990s in France: Micro 1, Micro Sb2, Polyjet, KNS, Polyman, SWM, SNB-WM, and Skitronic. A family of used machines was also sold at the start of the 1990s: MCR 1500, MCR 800, BAV, BTM, SEL, CBM, BBG
Takeover SKID
SKID, Laser 50
Takeover SKID
Günther Kamml took over the management and was responsible for preparing for the merger with SKID. In 1999, WINTERSTEIGER acquired SKID, its main rival in France. Skid also produced ski servicing machines, but in those days, WINTERSTEIGER was approximately four times larger. To keep the French owner, and his extensive market knowledge, on board, the acquisition was spread over three years.
At this time, there were only two salespersons for the whole of France – one for ski servicing machines and one for thin-cutting (known as Engineering back then). Between 1994 and 2000 the number of salespersons increased to four, with the subsidiary employing a total of 14 people.
In 2006, WINTERSTEIGER built a new sales and service subsidiary in Sainte-Hélène-du-Lac. Today the subsidiary has 28 employees, and in 2022, generated sales of 11.3 million euros.